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Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman on Thursday accused Russia of transferring some of the thousands of Ukrainian children it has allegedly abducted from occupied territories to North Korea for “re-education.”Dmytro Lubinets, as cited by AFP, did not say how many children were sent to North Korea, a state that has expanded its cooperation with Moscow in recent years. Russia has not made any public comment on the allegation.Lubinets cited testimony from the Kyiv-based Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR), which reported a network of 165 “camps” where Russia is attempting to re-educate Ukrainian children. According to the group, these camps operate in occupied Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and North Korea.A representative from the RCHR, testifying before the US Senate on Wednesday, said at least some of the children were taken to the Songdowon summer camp on North Korea’s eastern coast. There, they were taught to “destroy Japanese militarists” and met Korean veterans responsible for seizing a US spy ship in 1968.Ukraine says Russia has abducted or forcibly displaced nearly 20,000 children since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022. Russia has acknowledged the movement of some children but claims it acted to ensure their safety and aims to reunite them with their families — an assertion Ukraine rejects.In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner over the alleged deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory.
